It was days like this, late October 1922. when Benito Mussolini announced the infamous “March on Rome” with the aim of seizing power from the fascists. On October 28, the march finally began with a few thousand fascists who had gathered in the suburbs of the Italian capital. On October 29, King Victor Emmanuel III summoned Mussolini to entrust him with the formation of a government. On October 31, the fascist leader became prime minister.

The events that preceded and followed until the end of the 1920s are mentioned in the book by Emilio Lousos, which was recently published in a translation by Vangelis Zikos from “Alfeios” publications. The epitaph was written by Lambros Flitouris, who spoke to DW about the importance of this publication that illuminates aspects of fascism that are not well known, and dispels some myths about the infamous march to Rome.

“So it seems that fascism and all these movements can be dealt with, if we can understand them and deal with them at their birth” answers Flitouris when asked why the book is worth reading.

An unyielding democrat

Emilio Lusso from Sardinia was a democrat MP, elected on the island, a representative of rural socialism and a supporter of both federalism and greater regional autonomy.

“He was a fan of the redistribution of wealth, the preservation of the Italian state and social justice,” explains Flitouris, pointing out that his participation in the First World War deeply scarred him.

He was one of the few who remained steadfast against fascism, which often brought him close to death. “He had even taken part in the initial armed struggle against the regime.” Finally, in 1926, when the Mussolini regime had stabilized, he arrested him, imprisoned him and then sentenced him to exile on the island of Lipari. He managed to escape and find refuge in France, until Mussolini collapsed. In France, he also wrote the specific book that describes exactly the period 1919-1929. With the capitulation of Italy in 1943 he returned to his homeland and remained politically active. He was a minister in the first governments of national unity and a senator from 1948 to 1968. Until his death in 1975, he continued to write articles supporting logics of decentralization and regionalization.

Myths, misconceptions and lessons learned

The March on Rome, to which fascist propaganda gave mythic proportions by talking about hordes of hundreds of thousands of followers occupying the Italian capital, was nothing more than a poorly staged performance. Mussolini himself arrived in Rome from Milan by train. A few thousand, if not hundreds, of his followers organized a march meant to show their strength and intimidate their opponents.

Democratic forces underestimated the ferocity of fascism when it emerged in 1919, believing it to be a bubble that would quickly deflate. By the time they realized her, it was too late to stop him.

As Flitouris observes, for the final prevalence of fascism “the two most important factors were the devaluation and fragmentation, mainly of the democratic and left-wing space”.

Even in 1924, at a time when Mussolini’s regime seemed to be faltering, the Democratic front expected that the solution would essentially be provided by the king, who ultimately remained on Mussolini’s side, destroying the last hopes for a return to democratic order.

The case of Sardinia shows how unpopular fascism was at its inception, especially among ordinary people, which makes its subsequent imposition all the more dramatic.

The imposition of fascism was done in stages, which is why there is talk of “proto-fascism” and its second phase. Apart from its ludicrous aspects, some of which Lusso eloquently lists and which are perhaps a significant difference from Nazism in Germany, it was a rigid, blood-soaked regime based on gang practices, even if even today there are some who try to question its brutality.

Lousso describes countless cases of ordinary people, but also politicians, many of whom were his friends, who from one moment to the next switched to fascism, while previously taking oaths of resistance.

Cool and sarcastic at the same time

The strength of the book lies in the fact that it describes shocking events without unnecessary melodrama, but often with a mocking mood and bitter sarcasm. Even the incident in which Lusu, barricaded in his house, kills one of the attackers who come to lynch him, is described in a simple and cool way.

At the same time, while it is a rather personal account with more details about the peculiarity of Sardinia, it documents the overall rise and imposition of fascism in the whole of Italy, in a way that is interesting, sarcastic, but informative even for someone who does not know many details about this particular period of Italian and, by extension, European History.

As Flitouris says, Lousou thus manages to “show the ridiculousness of the fascist regime, but also the inability of the political forces of the time to deal with people, who under normal circumstances would operate on the fringes of society”.

The mocking reference at the end to the fact that “dictatorships everywhere” were beginning to prevail in Europe at that time is a good warning for our days as well, where in a number of European countries far-right parties and ethno-populists already rule or declare they are ready to rule.